Row over Iraq war veteran’s SpongeBob SquarePants headstone

A cemetery is refusing to reinstall a SpongeBob Squarepants headstone of an Iraq war veteran it removed out of consideration for other families.

Spring Grove Cemetery in Ohio initially approved the gravestone for Kimberly Walker but later removed it a day after the former US army corporal was laid to rest, saying a worker had wrongly given the go-ahead.

The headstone features SpongeBob, Ms Walker’s favourite TV character, in an army uniform with her name and rank.

Ms Walker’s family are furious with the graveyard’s U-turn after paying $13,000 (£8,000) for the headstone and getting copyright approval from Nickelodeon.

‘You can’t keep blaming it on an employee. That employee represented that whole cemetery and when they do wrong, you’ve got to make it right. Put SpongeBob back up,’ said Ms Walker’s mother Deborah.

Ms Walker’s twin sister Kara added: ‘My sister served our country and most people try to accommodate veterans and try to take care of them.

‘For them not to accommodate and respect what my sister sacrificed, not only for my family, but for everyone else in this country, really bothers me.’

Ms Walker, who served two year-long tours in Iraq in 2006 and 2010, was found dead in a hotel room in Colorado, Colorado Springs, on Valentine’s Day aged 28.

Her army sergeant boyfriend, who was based nearby, was later arrested and charged with her murder.